Top 10 roadside attractions in Texas and New Mexico

In the open spaces of west Texas and New Mexico, the legacy of cattle and ranching can be seen at roadside attractions and museums that celebrate everything from cowgirls and barbed wire to toilet seats and space history. Ken Smith and Doug Kirby of
RoadsideAmerica.com lead the tour

Tex Randall, Canyon

Although lean and lanky, Tex Randall weighs seven tons. That's because Tex is 47ft tall. Billed as "Texas' Biggest Texan," the wiry concrete cowboy was built in 1959 with an internal structure of pipe and rebar, and a network of steel struts and anchor cables that help him survive 100mph winds. He originally wore equally giant real denim jeans and a red-checkered shirt, courtesy of a local tent store, and for years he held a giant cigarette in one hand until someone shot it out. In deference to today's health-conscious travellers, Tex's smoke has been replaced with a giant spur. •Corner of N 3rd Ave and N 14th St, canyonmainstreet.com/siteplans.html

Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum, San Antonio

A retired plumber, Barney Smith has been making toilet seat art since the 1960s. The museum, which is his garage, is packed to the rafters with toilet seats turned into mini-masterpieces of decoupage. He asks that visitors call first, to give him time to put on some pants and open the garage (Barney is 92). If you bring a toilet seat, Barney will, eventually, turn it into art and add it to the museum. At the time of writing, he has completed 1,069 seats, including one with a piece of Saddam Hussein's toilet that was donated by an Iraq war veteran.•239 Abiso Avenue, +1 210 824 7791, facebook.com/pages/Barney-Smiths-Toilet-Seat-Art-Museum/258301387544372

The Buckhorn Hall of Horns, San Antonio

Photograph: Alamy

The Hall of Horns has been a San Antonio attraction since Wild West days, when the owners of the Buckhorn Saloon would trade animal horns for whiskey and beer. Horn highlights include a chair made for President Teddy Roosevelt from 62 sets of horns, and the mounted carcass of Old Tex, a steer with the world's longest longhorn span, at 8ft 1½in. But there's much more in this sprawling Five Museums in One, such as a miniature cathedral made of 50,000 matchsticks, a giant woolly mammoth head made of steel wool, and a profusion of art made of rattlesnake rattles.•318 E Houston Street, buckhornmuseum.com. Open daily from 10am, closing time varies, adults $18.99, children (3-11) $14.99

The LBJ Robot, Austin

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president who succeeded Kennedy, was a backslapping, joke-cracking, baby-kissing Texan politician. He has a presidential museum and library to match: it's 12 storeys tall and its most popular exhibit is an animatronic LBJ robot, salvaged from a Dallas department store. The robot moves tentatively while LBJ's recorded voice tells five of his favourite jokes, censored for family listening. Also in the museum are the bowling ball of his wife Lady Bird Johnson, the Catholic missal on which Johnson was sworn in after JFK's assassination, and the teleprompter copy of LBJ's 1968 speech in which he essentially told the American people, I quit.• 2313 Red River Street, lbjlibrary.org. Open 9am-5pm every day except Christmas Day. Adults $8, seniors $5, children 13-17 $3, under-13s free

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Fort Worth

Photograph: Ho New/Reuters/X80001

Opened in 2002, this $21m facility honours the lives of more than 200 cowgirls from as far back as the 1850s. Celebrated ladies of the saddle include crack shot Annie Oakley, country singer Patsy Cline, and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Galleries cover cowgirl life, from muddy cattle pens to glittery rodeo outfits that move on a mechanised rack past a viewing window. Clips of famous film cowgirls play in a theatre while a horse mounted over the stage cracks jokes, and there's a life-size bucking bronco that you can ride over video-composited rodeo footage.•1720 Gendy Street, cowgirl.net. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm. Closed Thanksgiving, 24-25 Dec and 1 Jan. Adults $10, seniors $8, three-12 years $8, under-threes free

The Mt Blanco Fossil Museum, Crosbyton

The personal museum of former rock album tribute artist Joe Taylor, which calls itself the "largest Creation Fossil Museum in the world", fills an old department store. Low-tech and hand-built, mostly by Joe, the museum displays fossilised human footprints, an immense human leg bone that reportedly belonged to a 15ft-tall ancient giant, and a Tons of Dung exhibit that asserts that the world's abundant supply of fossilised dino crap could have only been produced by mud from Noah's Flood. Joe resembles an Old Testament prophet, and has a refreshingly accepting view of Bigfoot and other monsters.•124 W Main, mtblanco.com, open 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, call +1 806 675 7777 to schedule a weekend appointment, adults $4, children $2

The American Wind Power Center and Museum, Lubbock

Photograph: Alamy

The first ranchers on the west Texas range found very little water but a lot of wind (Lubbock is one of the windiest cities in the US). Out of this imbalance was born a wind-powered water pump – the American windmill – and the American Wind Power Museum has more than 160 examples, rhythmically creaking in the prairie breeze. For $3,500 you can purchase a new, 19ft-tall windmill, the largest mass-produced gift shop souvenir we've ever encountered.•1701 Canyon Lake Drive, windmill.com. Open Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, plus summer Sundays (May-Sept) 2pm-5pm, $5pp, $10 for a family of four

Devil's Rope Museum, McLean

More than any other invention, it was barbed wire that tamed the wild west, by separating cows from crops in a land that had no trees or rocks to make fences. The Devil's Rope Museum displays thousands of varieties, including wire used against people, which, as museum curator Delbert Trew points out, is designed to be far more vicious than wire used against cattle. Delbert, a retired rancher, made much of the barbed wire art on display in the museum, and if you ask him politely he'll roll up his sleeves to show you his many scars. The museum does stock band-aids.•100 Kingsley Street, barbwiremuseum.com. Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm, closed 1 Dec-1 Mar, free

NEW MEXICO

Billy the Kid's Graves, Fort Sumner

Photograph: Walter Bibikow/JAI/Corbis

The town of Fort Sumner had the good fortune to be where outlaw Billy the Kid was gunned down in 1881. No one knows exactly where he's buried, so the town offers two attractions where you can see a Billy the Kid tombstone. The Old Fort Sumner Museum displays its version inside a steel cage, with the stone chained to the ground (it has been stolen several times). The Billy The Kid Museum has a big "Replica" sign over its tombstone, but that could be a trick to discourage robbers. This museum also displays his rifle, a lock of his hair, and the drape that hung across the doorway where he was killed.•Old Fort Sumner Museum, 3501 Billy the Kid Road, open daily 8.30am-5pm, $3.50.Billy The Kid Museum, 1435 Sumner Avenue, billythekidmuseumfortsumner.com, open Mon-Sat, 15 May-1 Oct, 8.30am-5pm, adult $5, senior $4, seven-15 years $3

The New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo

Photograph: Witold Skrypczak/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images

What Florida was to space travel in the 1960s, New Mexico plans to be in the 21st century. That means even more exhibits for the New Mexico Museum of Space History, which already has an impressive collection that includes a big moon rock, the world's fastest rocket sled, and a full-size crew module from the never-built Space Station 2001.One of the last exhibits in the museum is a mural of nearby Spaceport America, its sky filled with buzzing spacecraft – the Cosmos Mariner, the Canadian Arrow, the Starchaser Thunderstar – forming a vision of New Mexico's happy, spacey near-future.•3198 State Route 2001, nmspacemuseum.org, open daily 9am-5pm except Christmas and Thanksgiving, adult $6, senior $5, four-12 years $4, under-fours free

Ken Smith and Doug Kirby are the editors of RoadsideAmerica.com, a guide to more than 9,000 offbeat tourist sights in the US and Canada